The house fund is a good idea if you will share the costs for paper products and such.  

That will just reduce your income production. 

I'm not your lawyer, so you know, I don't give legal advice, and things I say you should consider stupid internet rumors.The way that statue reads to me is... you can really do whatever you want with it, but if the tenant files a demand for it and you can't product it in the needed time, you'll end up owing them triple the deposit as a penalty, so you should probably make deep considerations on the risk profile, as if you can't produce it quickly, it gets even more expensive, very fast.

Go with the lower monthly payment and invest the difference in something productive.

A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.Discounts on some products and services are offered to BP members: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/proIf you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/

The link provided by Christian Manhard leads to a conversation thread that has some good points regarding the product.

So that opens up more options than you thought.However, property that qualifies for 1031 treatment is property you purchased with the intent of holding for productive use. 

In my book, there are four rules to (real estate) success:Overcome inertia to get in the game by take consistent productive actionDon't do things that could take you out of the game with a single bad moveDo things to extend and enhance your gameplay Create a system to get better, in some aspect, every dayYou've already demonstrated that you are all over Rule #1, so it's time to consider #2 and #3!

Spam PMs, which would be defined as any kind of unsolicited pitch for products or services, is specifically prohibited (see rule N).

I use QBO, so I just log on my cell phone, because I can snap a picture of the physical receipt or invoice to be saved with the record online, and then I can throw it away.Acquisitions: I am not actively trying to grow my portfolio, but I do have alerts setup through the MLS that give me emails everyday.